A study into video game piracy has revealed that the problem isn't as widespread as previously reported.

Deemed the "largest examination of game piracy via peer-to-peer networks to date", the study, which was conducted by three separate universities, claims that over a 90-day period, 173 games were illegally downloaded by 12.6 million people.

The findings contradict a previous study carried out by the ESA (via CVG), which claimed that 200 games were being illegally downloaded by 10 million people each month.

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Aalborg University's Anders Drachen, who was a member of the research team, was keen to point out that despite the discrepancies between the findings, P2P piracy is still "extraordinarily prevalent".

"However, the numbers in our investigation suggest that previously reported magnitudes in game piracy are too high.

"It also appears that some common myths are wrong, eg that it is only shooters that get pirated, as we see a lot of activity for children's and family games on BitTorrent for the period we investigated."